Jo Barrett is a romance author who was born in Okinawa, Japan, yet the only Japanese word she understands is sushi.

She moved to San Antonio, Texas, and attended the University of Texas in Austin, where she received the Normandy Scholarship. After graduation, she moved to Washington, D.C. and began working as a staffer on Capitol Hill. While working full-time, she earned a law degree from Georgetown University. She then moved to New York City, worked briefly at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and began writing her first novel. She has traveled to more than 70 countries, and is a big fan of diplomacy and worldwide peacekeeping missions.